The Christian 
Enterprise Abroad 


A Pre-Convention Study 
Edited by the Educational Secretaries 


Ninth International Convention of the 
Student Volunteer Movement for 


Foreign Missions - - - Indianapolis 


December 28, 1923 fo January 1, 1924 





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Copyright, 1923 
STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT FOR ForREIGN MISSIONS 
New York, N. Y. . 





Contents 


PAGE 
Pm Lessa enlOutlier elevates aatrat 4, Wetaect ue mae tomas Casket 5 
Nationalism, Race Spirit, and the Missionary Appeal.................. 2) 


The Development of the Christian Churches in Foreign 
Ly A KOR ide sass A AR Nc Ra mr kM, co Re Rr ft a 15 


Spiritual Opportunities in Specialized Types of Life Service 
EDT OA CEM Mette tte 5. acca ibate nA MAU Thee Clee Ohi oen) BONNE Ete 2 





The Church of Christ in Africa 


“The greatest service one gives is the service for the living 
Church of Christ. I know of no service so fascinating. 


“Here you come to a people living under the dread of magic and 
of the spirits, and you speak to them the Name that is above every 
name, and you begin to see the whole current of national life turn- 
ing from war to peace, from drunken insolence to sober industry. 
You see this one and that one believing, and then the little society 
of believers appears and there is a Church of Christ. 


“Think of the glory of trying to give to this Church its form. 
You may not superimpose upon Africa our own cumbersome elabor- 
ate system, but may create for Africa an African Church, an Afri- 
can model, and African architecture. Think of the glory of trying 
then to shape the doctrine of the Church. For why should we bring 
to Africa our elaboration of doctrine which we have built to pro- 
tect ourselves from heresies? The very teaching of the doctrine and 
the explanation is only a long system of introducing and multiply- 
ing new heresies. 


“What we want to give them is a doctrine which reveals to them 
the simplicity and wonder of God. I think if I were making a creed, 
the first article in it for Africa would simply be that God is good, 
for it is the most wonderful thing you can bring to Africa—tell 
them that there is character in God, and if you can tell them that 
God is holy, righteous, good, you are giving them a profoundly new 
truth. And I think the second article I would like to teach them 
is, that he who worships God must be good too. For they have 
never thought of associating conduct with worship, and one wants 
to save the African Church from the most awful heresy that can 
come into the Church, an unethical Christianity; and try to help 
them to present to the world the most glorious and convincing wit- 
ness that the Church can give to the world—a Church that is Christ- 
like in character and in service.”’—Dr. DonaLp Fraser.—Missionary 
to Africa. 





Additional copies of this pamphlet may be secured 
for twenty-five cents each from the 
STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT FoR ForREIGN MIssIoNs 
25 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y. 


A Message to the Delegates 


PROFESSOR CHARLES R. ErpMAN, D.D., 
Theological Seminary, Princeton, N. J. 


“What think ye? That he will not come to the feast?” This question, 
taken from the sacred Story, may well express the eager solicitude which 
fills many hearts in view of the coming International Convention of the 
Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions. 


The ancient feast attracted countless pilgrims from every quarter of the 
world. It was intended to perpetuate the memories of a glorious past and 
to stimulate hopes of a more glorious future. It celebrated events and 
brought to mind predictions which concerned all nations and peoples. In 
the number of its participants, in the spirit of its observance, in the wide- 
ness of its influence, it was the most important festival of the time. 


Surely it is not too much to say that a Student Volunteer Convention is 
the most significant religious gathering in any four years of American stu- 
dent life. In seriousness of purpose, in carefulness of preparation, in the 
number of delegates, in the absorbing interest of its sessions, in the scope 
and permanence of its influence, it stands unique. 


On that particular occasion with which the Gospel story is concerned, as 
the crowds were thronging into the holy city, one great hope was in the 
hearts of the people, it was that Jesus would come to the feast. His min- 
istry had reached its climax, His fame had filled the land; and those who 
came to take part in the festival were eager to see Him whose words and 
deeds were becoming the wonder of the world. They wished themselves to 
hear his message and to witness His gracious works. They longed for Him 
to appear. 

So in a multitude of minds there is an eager longing to have the living 
Christ manifest Himself at this approaching Convention of students. Noth- 
ing mystical or magical is expected; nothing sentimental or emotional is 
desired; but there is a yearning for such a spiritual awakening, such a 
vision of human needs, such a dedication of life to unselfish service, as 
are sure to result from the manifested power of the divine Christ. 


At that feast of old there was good ground for expecting the great 
Prophet to appear. He had begun his public career some years before at 
this particular festival. He had been present at subsequent feasts; and now 
that the interest of the nation was centered upon Him, and this chief 
annual festival was again to be observed, the expectant multitudes rightly 
argued that He would not disappoint them but would reveal Himself at 
this time as He had revealed Himself before. 


On a similar ground the delegates to this Volunteer Convention may 
reasonably cherish a like expectation. There is no question that the living 
Lord has manifested Himself at such assemblies of students in earlier days. 
The Volunteer Movement had its inception in such a gathering. The fam- 
ous evangelist, Mr. D. L. Moody, had invited groups of college men to meet 
for a Bible Conference at Mount Hermon, near Northfield. Mr. Robert 





6 A PRE-CONVENTION OLU0ULD" 





Wilder and his sister had been praying in Princeton that at this Conference 
Christ would manifest His power in calling out a large number of student 
volunteers for Christian service in foreign countries. This was not the 
understood purpose of the Conference; but such currents of thought were 
set in motion, such a clear conviction of the spiritual needs of other nations 
was felt, such unreserved dedications of life were made, that before that first 
conference closed one hundred men had volunteered to undertake work abroad. 


The influence upon the students of America was incalculable. The mes- 
sage and inspiration of that Conference were conveyed to them in a tour 
of the colleges during the following year by Messrs. Wilder and Forman. 
The continued enlistments for missionary service resulted in the great Stu- 
dent Volunteer Movement, which today has upon its rolls the names of over 
ten thousand North American students who have sailed for service in dis- 
tant fields since 1886. In the achievement of these results no factors have 
been more potent than the eight great Quadrennial Volunteer Conventions. 
Those who are best acquainted with the history of these gatherings in the 
past are most sanguine in their hopes for the Convention now at hand. 


At the ancient festival the highest expectations were more than realized. 
Jesus did come to the feast; and He then gave such a supreme manifesta- 
tion of redeeming love and divine power, in His death and resurrection, that 
the message of the crucified and risen Christ has been drawing followers to 
Him during all succeeding years in every land where it has been heard. 
Increasingly has been fulfilled His promise, made at the opening of that 
feast, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” 


Thus, should there be a true manifestation of Christ at this coming 
Convention of students, it is impossible to imagine all the influences for 
good, all the boundless benefits, which are sure to result. A few of these 
consequences readily come to mind. 


First of all for the student world, the release of spiritual power conveyed 
through the returning delegates would bring a measureless deepening and 
broadening enrichment of life. In this student world there are now strange 
contrasts of chivalry and selfishness, of high idealism and of low moral 
standards ; shams are detested, yet lives are consciously inconsistent; author- 
ity is rejected, yet there is a thirst for truth; there is little interest in the 
dogmas of religion, yet a ready response to high ethical appeals; there is 
a realization of the baffling problems of the age, but no certainty as to the 
path along which their solution should be sought. What a change would 
sons on every campus, if Christ could be revealed there as the Light of the 

orld. 


In the second place, it is not difficult to imagine the effect which would be 
produced upon the social, civil and industrial life of America. The students 
of today are to be the leaders of tomorrow. Not all will be such, and many 
leaders will rise from other ranks; but graduates from colleges and uni- 
versities exercise an influence wholly disportionate to their numbers, and it 
is thrilling to picture the possible transforming power of trained leaders who 
may go forth manifesting Christian principles and ideals of service in 
every sphere of activity and endeavor. 





A MESSAGE TO THE DELEGATES 7 





In the third place, it is easy to conceive the aid such leaders would give 
toward solving the international, economic and racial problems which press 
for solution and which must be determined ultimately in accordance with 
the standards and requirements of Christ. 


So too, the church would be revived and reinforced. Unfortunately, she 
lacks in her organized work the united support of the student body of our 
Western world. There is room for many college graduates in the activities 
of local congregations. The students of the land need to be reassured of the 
divine mission of the Church universal, and to be persuaded that it is their 
privilege and within their power to mould and determine her forms of service, 
the direction of her activities, and the application of her message to the 
problems of the times. 


Then again, the home bases for missionary operations abroad would be 
immeasurably strengthened. These great Student Conventions have always 
had this effect. They have not only called forth recruits for foreign ser- 
vice, but also volunteers who have dedicated their lives to the support of 
Christian movements in all lands. A notable example of this was the Nash- 
ville Convention which among other results gave to a young business man 
such a view of possible service that he organized the Laymen’s Missionary 
Movement and thus secured greatly enlarged resources for the advancement 
of missionary campaigns on foreign fields. If the coming Convention re- 
sults, as is hoped, in a revival of spiritual life and of missionary passion 
among the students of America, the enterprise of world evangelization will 
not lack supporters to uphold the cause by their intelligent advocacy, by their 
generous gifts and by their prayers. 

Most of all, a new dedication of life on the part of the students of 
America will mean a great forward movement for the Christian forces on 
foreign fields. Never before has missionary work been more promising and 
at the same time more difficult. The rise of indigenous churches, the de- 
velopment of nationalistic movements, the impact upon non-Christian 
people of a civilization nominally Christian but in large measure pagan, the 
revival of ethical religions, the rapidly changing social, industrial and _politi- 
cal conditions among all races and nations, indicate the need on the mission 
field of qualified Christian workers who can adapt themselves to these 
changed conditions and can cooperate with native leaders whose churches 
must assume responsibility increasingly for evangelizing their own people. 

Will such results flow from this Convention? ‘What think ye? Will 
Christ be at the feast?” In the truest and most literal sense, He will; there is 
no doubt about that. However, the actual manifestation of His power will 
depend largely upon conditions in the production of which it is the glad 
privilege of each delegate to have a part. 

Each one can become acquainted in advance with the general history of 
the Student Volunteer Movement, with its large purposes and its great 
achievements, and can thus be prepared to receive and to remember the 
informing and stimulating messages of the Convention. 


Each one can influence helpfully certain of his fellow delegates, by remov- 
ing possible misunderstanding or difficulties, and by such sympathetic coun- 





8 A PRE-CONVENTION STUDY 





sel as may deepen the impressions which are being made, and may perfect 
plans which are being proposed, and may strengthen resolutions which are 
being formed. 

Each delegate can believe in the presence of Christ at the Convention. 
This presence cannot be realized by the senses, or the feelings, but only by 
an act of faith. However dim the vision may be, each one can seek to 
act as though Christ were present and conscious of every thought and deed 
and able to supply the deepest need of every heart that is turned toward 
him. 

Each delegate can be in the spirit of prayer. He can sincerely ask for 
the wisdom and strength his tasks demand, and can voice the petition that 
the largest hopes for the Convention may be realized and that new spiritual 
forces may be brought into being and manifested in the student world. 


Each delegate can expect a manifestation of divine power, and can be 
looking eagerly for clearer visions of truth and can be ready to act upon 
deepening convictions of duty. 

Each one can be yielded to the will of God. This is the supreme con- 
dition of spiritual vision. Then, as from the point of vantage which the 
Convention affords, one catches wide vistas of opportunity, privilege and 
service, it will be possible to look with clearer light upon the most serious 
problems of life and to solve them with satisfaction, confidence and joy. A 
mountain top is a good place to plan a journey across the plain. 


All the delegates can strive to realize their responsibility to the student 
bodies they represent and can be alert to gather such facts and to record such 
new aspects of truth as will most stimulate the spiritual life of the institu- 
tions to which they return. 

Surely Christ will be at the feast; and as of old He manifested Himself 
most gloriously to those who loved Him best, so at this time He will reveal 
himself most clearly and grant the most definite guidance to those who trust 
Him most fully and most sincerely seek to know and to do His will. To 
them His presence will be real; and as they go forth to assume new re- 
sponsibilities and to undertake new tasks, they will understand more per- 
fectly than ever the meaning of the promise which gave unconquerable 
courage to that band of young men who, after the feast, went forth from the 
sacred city to proclaim in all the world the transforming power of their 
Lord: “Lo, Iam with you always, even unto the end of the age.” 


Nationalism, Race-Spirit and the 
Missionary Appeal 


D. WiLiarp Lyon, M.A., D.D., 
Secretary for the Y.M.C.A. in China 


In the racy style of a newspaper correspondent but with the keen insight 
of a real student of current history, Mr. Frazier Hunt, under the title of 
“The Rising Temper of the East,” has recently sketched in graphic outline 
the rapid development of racial and national consciousness, making it the 
key to a proper interpretation of the political and social life of the peoples 
of both the Near and the Far East. No forward-looking mind in our gen- 
eration can hope rightly to evaluate the forces now creating the new to- 
morrow without giving full weight to the emergence of the factor to which 
Mr. Hunt devotes his entire book. The student of missions no less than 
the student of politics will find it necessary to appraise this new spirit which 
in widely separated parts of the world has suddenly burst into bloom. 


In a sense the spirit of racial and national consciousness is not new. The 
Jewish people had it to a striking degree from an early day. It attained 
marked development in Europe in the 19th century. Not until during and 
after the World War, however, has it become a world epidemic. All nations are 
now affected by it. Men and women, of all classes, employers or employed, 
rulers or ruled, educated or illiterate, white, black, yellow or brown, seem to be 
inoculated with the bacillus of self-determination. War-sick peasants in 
Europe and brawny burden-bearers in Asia and Africa have alike been awak- 
ened to a new sense of race-respect and corporate personality. The mental 
attitude of the peoples in the countries where the foreign mission enterprise 
is being conducted is not what it was even four years ago. The problems 
of missions involve, therefore, a situation so radically different from that 
confronting previous Conventions that they demand a restudy of our whole 
task and the strategy of its acomplishment. 


Self-Consciousness in India 


Well-known among recent expressions of racial self-consciousness is the 
unrest in India. A highly educated Hindu, who as a barrister-at-law had 
fought the legal battles of oppressed compatriots in South Africa, returned 
to his native land with a burning passion for the self-determination of 
India. He felt sure that his fellow-countrymen had not only the right but 
also the ability to work out their own political salvation. At the same time 
he was profoundly convinced by his experiences and meditations of many 
years that it would be neither right nor expedient to seek his goal by the 
pathway of physical force. With the irresistible eloquence of his own 
example, Ghandi appealed to his fellow-nationals to dedicate themselves to 
the realization of their political independence by a passive resistance to 
foreign rule. His appeal went to the heart. The high and the lowly flocked 
to his support. Fanatics who overstepped the limits of his counsels of non- 
violent non-cooperation were brought to book by their saner brothers, unless 





10 A PRE-CONVENTION STUDY 





forsooth, they had in the meantime .run amok of the government. Though 
Ghandi is in prison, probably no living man exercises a dominating influ- 
ence over so many people as does this quiet champion of a cause which he 
and millions of his compatriots believe will never die. Thus has India 
become a different India. The people have developed a sense of racial 
dignity which will not be satisfied until it can find adequate and unham- 
pered expression in acts of self-direction. 


The New Spirit in the Far East 

No less striking than the awakened national consciousness of the people 
of India is the rapid rise of a similar spirit in China. In the palmiest days 
of the monarchy any real interest in national problems was limited to a very 
small part of the total population. Even a half decade ago there was no 
wide-spread spirit of patriotism. This traditional apathy, already yielding 
to influences which had resulted in the establishment of a Republic, was 
. converted into an intense feeling of patriotism when word reached China 
that the Versailles Conference had decided-that Germany’s former rights in 
China should go to Japan. The feelings of the students were the first to 
burst into a nation-wide expression on May 4, 1919, when parades were 
simultaneously organized in every important student center in the country. 
Encouraged by success the movement, which came to be known as the May 
Fourth Movement, promoted a more or less continuous campaign of pub- 
licity and gathered strength. The fire spread far beyond student circles. 
Those responsible for the administration and instruction of students were 
the next to feel a keen sense of duty. Later the chambers of commerce in 
the large cities accepted the challenge. Finally, in the autumn of 1921, the 
provincial educational associations and local chambers of commerce jointly 
chose two men to represent the people of China at Washington during the 
discussions of the famous Conference on Limitation of Armaments. This 
was the occasion for a more nearly nation-wide expression of popular 
opinion than had previously been known. The forces which gave birth to 
so intense a popular feeling on certain national issues are cumulatively at 
work to compel the rapid growth of national consciousness. Stimulated by 
the discovery of a new power which they can wield, the promoters of pub- 
lic opinion are diligent in their efforts to make it increasingly effective. The 
temper of the times is democratic. The people’s voice must be heard, not 
alone in politics, but likewise in industrial development, in social reconstruc- 
tion, in educational policy and none the less in religion. 


What is thus being enacted on a spectacular scale in India and China is 
also taking place in the hidden fight between imperialistic autocracy and the 
common man in Japan, in the struggle between Filipino and American poli- 
cies, between minority rulers and majority subjects in Africa and in the 
rebuilding of civilization in war-swept Europe. Scarcely a people among 
whom missionaries are at work has not responded in some degree to the 
call of the hour for a clear realization of national or racial mission. 


The New Spirit and the Missionary Enterprise 
The missionary enterprise has a positive responsibility towards this new 
spirit. Whether the spirit will degenerate into a narrow, greedy patriotism, 


NATIONALISM AND RACE SPIRIT 11 


or rise to the heights of fraternal devotion to the best interests of all man- 
kind, is a question of great concern to the missionary. In so far as racial 
and national consciousness is a protest against selfish ambition or unjust 
tyranny, the missionary must seek to exert his influence in favor of making 
this protest conform to the principles of brotherhood and individual worth 
for which his Master stood. To be a patriot himself in a manner consis- 
tent with the growth of a patriotism of equal quality among the people to 
whose highest development he has given his service is one of the mission- 
ary’s peculiar privileges. The challenge he must meet is that of discovering 
a patriotism which shall harmonize with the fullest possible application of 
the principles of Jesus to international relations. The missionary is more 
than an interpreter of goodwill among different races and nations; he has 
the opportunity in a very special sense of becoming a creator of such good 
will. 
The New Spirit and the New Missionary 
The new spirit of nationalism and race-consciousness also demands in the 
missionary of today that he be more than his predecessor found it necessary 
or possible to be, a worker behind the scenes. His place is becoming less 
that of a legislator and an administrator in ecclesiastical matters. Such 
governing functions as these are coming gradually, but surely and properly, 
into the hands of native leaders, especially in countries which are culturally 
and religiously advanced. The missionary must give himself more fully 
than before to a sympathetic study of the people with whom he lives, in 
order the more effectively to interpret to them the essence of Christianity, to 
the deeper understanding of which he must likewise devote a still larger 
measure than ever of persevering thought and prayer. The positions which 
he can hold in the future will more and more be those involving advice and 
education. His highest achievements will be in the realm of discovering 
and training indigenous leadership. The missionary who sees this vision 
most clearly and shapes his course to it most consistently will avoid much 
of the strain and pain which will be the inevitable lot of the one who sees 
too late. 
The New Spirit and the New Appeal 


A new type of missionary appeal is also demanded. The day was when 
some of the advocates of missions spoke in mathematical terms. So many 
missionaries would be required for every million inhabitants of mission 
lands to complete the work of the world’s evangelization. An appeal of this 
sort was superficial, at best, and fortunately has been largely discarded. Its 
use now would be out of harmony with the best in the national conscious- 
ness of which we have been thinking. North America and Europe no longer 
have the monopoly in evangelizing Asia and Africa. The primary respon- 
sibility for the task will ultimately belong to the churches that are planted 
in these other continents. The duty of the churches of the West is to co- 
operate with these newer churches and to make sure that such seed as is 
planted is the best and that the growing seed is so nourished as to ensure 
its producing even better seed, able in turn to reproduce itself on a pro- 
gressively increasing scale. It is so little a question of arithmetic that quan- 
tity becomes a very subordinate factor. The churches of the West can now 


12 A PRE-CONVENTION STUDY 


wisely maintain and successfully use only such missionaries as are accept- 
able to the churches of the countries where they are to serve. This will 
necessarily affect their number and define their qualifications and types of 
service. 

Interdenominational Cooperation 


Denominational consciousness has been a prominent element in the mis- 
sionary appeal. It is not unscriptural that Christians should seek to 
excel in good works. But it is surely not in keeping with the spirit of our 
Lord that Christians of different names should compete against one an- 
other in carrying the Christian message to those who have not heard it. 
Happily the tendency, both on the field and among the home churches, is 
toward an even larger measure of correlation of activities. But there still 
remains much to be desired in the realization of the best ideals of inter- 
denominational cooperation. If, however, the churches of the West do not 
move more rapidly in this direction than they now are moving, they may 
sooner or later be confronted with the alternative of withdrawing, for the 
forces of national consciousness are likely sooner or later to assert them- 
selves and to insist on a fuller measure of cooperation in the building up of 
strong indigenous churches. Far better that foreign controlled churches 
should prepare to retire by throwing their energies into the development of 
churches of the soil that will survive. What matters it whether the sur- 
viving churches shall be called Methodist, or Presbyterian, or Baptist, or 
Episcopalian, if only they be truly Christian? 


The New Spirit and the Question of Support 


The desires of the donors of mission funds have often been a determin- 
ing factor in mission policy. That a contributor should wish to ensure that 
his gift shall be spent in harmony with his own deepest convictions is both 
natural and fair. But those who administer mission funds have likewise a 
responsibility to protect the churches of the mission field from an exotic or 
parasitic status. These infant churches must be allowed the chance to be- 
come indigenous. Only through trusting them and giving them freedom 
for self-expression can this be accomplished. They must be free to choose 
for themselves, if they are to grow into independent maturity. Like the 
children of wealthy parents they are in danger of being deprived of a nor- 
mal stimulus to do for themselves all that they are capable of doing. The 
wise administrator will doubtless entrust the indigenous church from a very 
early date with responsibility for deciding how funds available shall be used, 
but at the same time will exercise judgment as to whether all the funds 
from abroad for which the indigenous church makes request shall be sup- 
plied. The wise giver will adopt the same policy, and will give full weight 
to the advice of those who are most closely in touch with actual conditions 
on the field, be they direct or indirect representatives of the native church. 
The degree to which the unaided judgment of the indigenous church should 
be made determinative in such matters must of course vary with circum- 
stances. But the growing sense of national and racial consciousness among 
the peoples of mission lands would seem to point to the wisdom of accelerat- 
ing rather than retarding the processes whereby the voice of the indigenous 


NATION ALIS MAN DURACE SPIRIT 13 


church shall be made more audible to western ears. In any event it has 
become increasingly clear that the interests of the self-directing and self- 
propagating church of the mission field must in the last analysis determine 
not only how much money shall be transmitted to it from abroad, but also 
for what objects and under what conditions this money shall be expended. 


Some friends of missions, who especially appreciate the spiritual value 
of missionary giving to those who give, will doubtless be disturbed by the 
fear that such limitations on the use of men and money abroad as are im- 
plied in this discussion will work to the impoverishment of the churches in 
the West. But it should be noted that the new conditions give a rare op- 
portunity to draw out the highest type of spirituality in seeking the best 
interests of the churches abroad and in doing so through cooperative efforts. 
Well measured giving also implies the giving of thought and prayer. Not 
until the giver is challenged, as is the missionary himself, by the question, 
What is the true purpose of missions? will his largest spiritual capacities 
be developed and the most far-reaching results of his life be realized. 


The New Spirit and the Christian Student 


I am persuaded that all the changes of attitude and method on the part 
of the missionary of the new generation demanded by the rising tide of race 
and national consciousness will find a ready response in the minds and pur- 
poses of the earnest Christian young men and women of our colleges today. 
That the missionary shall be in sympathy with the best in the life and 
culture of the people to whom he goes will harmonize with the tolerance 
and socially-minded aspirations of the students of our age. 


That the missionary shall go to his task willing to decrease while his 
associates, native to his adopted country, increase in the carrying of direct 
responsibility, will challenge the best and most unselfish souls to multiply 
their lives through others. 

That there is to be a real opportunity to guide plastic peoples in thinking 
out new solutions for the problems of a wider social application of the 
principles of human brotherhood will appeal to men and women of large 
caliber and fine Christian devotion. 

That the emphasis shall be on qualifications rather than on numbers will 
appeal to those who have been trained to think in terms of efficiency. 


That missionary funds, which will doubtless be required in ever-increas- 
ing amounts, shall be given with a view not so much to immediate as to ulti- 
mate results, and be spent in a manner to stimulate rather than to hinder 
self-support on the part of the indigenous church is in keeping with the 
spirit of modern giving. 

That thought shall be centered on the best means of building up strong 
indigenous Christian churches abroad, with such organization and practices 
as will best suit the conditions which severally obtain in the different fields, 
rather than on the propagation of denominational creeds and orders, will re- 
ceive a cordial response from the ever-growing number of young minds that 
are becoming increasingly impatient with divisive forces in western Chris- 
tianity and are looking for a federation in action whch will make possible the 


14 A PRE-CONVENTION STUDY 


undertaking of tasks commensurate with the dignity and potential mission of 
the whole church. 


That the controlling motive in every phase of the missionary enterprise 
shall be, not the glorification of the West, not the extension of the realm 
or the multiplication of the achievements of any particular North American 
church or group of churches, not the spiritual good or complacency of the 
giver, nor even the statistical fruitfulness of the mission, but first, last and 
always the highest and fullest welfare of the people to whom the enterprise 
is directed, will not fail to satisfy the deepest thoughts of those alert spirits of 
our day who have learned, in conformity with the finding of modern psy- 
chology and in harmony with the principles and practice of Jesus Christ, 
to respect the personalities of other men by planting in their hearts the 
seed of the gospel, and by seeking to foster the growth of this seed into a 
spontaneous and vigorous life which will find personal and corporate expres- 
sions natural to itself and unhampered by any climatic conditions obtaining 
in the environment from which the seed was transported. 


The Development of the Christian 
Churches in Foreign Lands 


A. L. Warnsuuts, M.A., D.D., 
Formerly Missionary in China, now Secretary, International 
Missionary Council. 

“It has long been generally accepted that the establishment of an indigenous 
church is a primary aim of foreign missions, and that this aim implies 
the development of responsibility and leadership in the Church in the mis- 
sion field. “The apostles founded everywhere not missions but churches, 
and made them the center of all activities.’ ‘All things are yours.’ Paul or 
Apollos or Cephas! ‘Missionaries belong to you; you do not belong to 
missionaries,’ was the cry of that master-builder. What then was the place 
of the missionary? “Ourselves, your servants for Jesus’ sake.’ The mis- 
sionary is the servant, not the master of the Church; not lords over God’s 
heritage, but examples; not masters over the faith of the disciples, but 
helpers.’—Church Missionary Society Deputation’s Report. 


The Indigenous Church 


The Church has been organized in every mission field,—that is the sig- 
nificant fact that must be recognized and fully appreciated at the outset. 
The organization will vary because of differing circumstances and also be- 
cause of the different age of the church in each country. Nevertheless, 
either in rudimentary form or in fully developed life and activity, the Church 
will be found today in every land where the Gospel has been preached. 


As a matter of fact, it is inexact to speak of the “church in the mission 
field.” The whole world is the mission field and there is no church that is 
not a Church in the Mission field. The only difference is that some are 
younger and others are older churches. The period in which the younger 
churches must remain in tutelage to older churches is essentially temporary, 
and it is almost ended in some of the countries of Asia and elsewhere. 


Wherever the pioneer period of evangelization is past, we are not to 
think any longer only of converts gathered in widely scattered little groups 
of more or less unimportant people, without leaders of their own. On the 
contrary, in all the older mission fields the Christian Church in many areas 
is a full-grown organization, with strong native leaders, with a very real 
esprit-de-corps and with an increasing consciousness of unity and power. 
These churches are also increasingly conscious of their own responsibility 
and of their mission, and that they are being led of the Holy Spirit in dis- 
charging that responsibility. They are to be thought of, not as a by- 
product of missionary work, but as themselves by far the most efficient 
element in the Christian propaganda. In each country they are a definite 
community whose social life and ideals, as well as their personal faith and 
character, are already a powerful factor in the reshaping of the national life. 
These churches are a real vindication of the spiritual power of the Christian 
religion which they profess. The questions that confront the missionary in 


16 A PRE-CONVENTION STUDY 


his relation to the church are those of development and adjustment, not of 
foundation principles. The missionary may still have the privilege and 
joy of teaching to new hearers the elementary truths of Christianity, but 
within the Church he will also have the responsibility of helping it to at- 
tain to higher levels of knowledge and of Christian practice. 


Numerical Strength 


Some concrete facts may be given to illustrate these generalizations. (1) 
Numbers. The Churches are rapidly growing in numbers. In Japan at the 
end of 1921 there were 139,000 communicant Christians. In the decade 
from 1899 to 1909 the net increase in Christians was 23,567; from 1909 
to 1919 it was 34,076. In 1910 they raised $150,000; in 1915, $290,000; 
and in 1920, $750,000. The value of church property, not including schools, 
increased from $692,000 in 1910 to $1,981,000 in 1915, and to $3,518,000 
in 1920.—Creative Forces in Japan, by G. M. Fisher. 

In Korea there are now three times as many Christians as there were in 
the whole world one hundred years after Christ, and all these have been 
gathered in during the present generation. The Church in China has grown 
to such an extent that the National Christian Conference in 1922 made “The 
Chinese Church” its central theme. At the national conference in 1907 
there were no Chinese present, in 1922 Chinese delegates composed the 
majority of the Conference of which Rev. C. Y. Cheng, D. D., was Chair- 
man. ‘The statistics for China are as follows: Communicant members of 
the church in 1906 numbered 178,251; in 1913, 235,303; in 1920, 366,524. 
The average increase per year has been at the rate of 6%, and in some of 
these years it has been 10% and 13%. Meanwhile the annual rate of in- 
crease of the Protestant churches in the United States has been stated to 
be 1%. No recent figures have been published showing the progress 
which these Chinese Churches are making toward self-support, but it is 
well known that in many areas as, for example, in the Amoy and Swatow 
regions, the native Christians are paying from 50% to 80% of the total 
cost of the evangelistic work of the church. 

In India, in 1922, the communicants in the Christian Church, not in- 
cluding the Roman Catholic numbered 757,717; and if we count non-com- 
municant Christian adherents and baptized children, the Indian Christian 
community numbered 1,583,274. Their contributions for Church pur- 
poses amounted to Rs. 1,385,490 ($461,830). 

It is impossible at the time of this writing to give complete statistics of 
the Church in all parts of the world. No totals for all Africa are available. 
But when we refer to Africa, we think at once of Uganda. It seems 
as though it were only the day before yesterday when the appeal of Stanley 
for that country thrilled the world and resulted in the response of the 
Church Missionary Society sending the first missionaries there in 1876. 
After opposition even unto the shedding of blood, over the graves of its 
martyrs, the Church has won its way, and today in the heart of Africa there 
is what may almost be termed, relatively speaking, a small Christian na- 
tion. Or, again, it is startling to realize that the largest communion services 





DOE GHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN’ FOREIGN LANDS | 17 


in the world are held at Elat on the West Coast, where in the church 
established by the American Presbyterian Mission 18,000 communicants 
unite in such a service. 

When the South Seas are mentioned, we are reminded of the romantic 
stories of the pioneer missionaries. Today the churches started by the 
London Missionary Society are so strong that they send out not only their 
own missionaries to other islands, but they pay in full the salaries of the 
English missionaries not only while on the field, but during their furloughs 
in England as well. 


Is there need to say more of growth and self-support? 


Home Missions in Asia 


For further proof of the evangelistic character of these churches we 
might speak of the home missionary societies. Many of these societies or 
boards are local in extent, for which presbyteries, diocesan synods, or dis- 
trict conferences are responsible. In many cases, a local church provides 
the entire maintenance of an out-station or mission. In India and China 
there are two noteworthy examples of this missionary purpose of the churches. 


The ‘National Missionary Society” in India was organized in 1905. It 
depends for its support entirely on Indian Christians, and in 1922 its gross 
receipts were Rs 66,264 ($22,088). It has two full-time traveling secre- 
taries, and maintains missions in eight different parts of India, having in 
1922 taken over full responsibility for one of the districts in which an 
English mission has been working. The society is interdenominational, re- 
ceiving its support from Indian Christians of all denominations, while its 
work in the different areas is conducted in accordance with differing polities. 


In China, the “Home Missionary Society” was organized in 1918. In 
organization and aim it closely resembles the similar society in India. In 
1922 its income was about Mex. $20,000 (U.S. $10,000). Its main field is 
in the province of Yunnan, where it maintains three mission stations. The 
older “Manchurian Missionary Society,” begun in 1906, has now united 
with it, and the “Shansi Mission” of the Anglican Church is in friendly 
relations with it. In Japan the denominational boards are carrying forward 
missionary work in Formosa, Korea and other places, as well as in vari- 
ous parts of Japan proper. 


Influence of these Churches 


How much do these Churches weigh? Is the quality of their Christian 
life and service such as to influence social and national customs and 
policies? The answer is that their influence can not be measured by statis- 
tics. These churches are comparatively young and they are exceedingly 
small in comparison with the huge non-Christian population by which 
they are surrounded. But their influence is great—out of all proportion 
to their numbers. Only a few of the lines along which they are exerting 
powerful influence today can be suggested here. The attitude of their non- 
Christian neighbors has changed greatly. Sometimes this can hardly be 
seen but it is definitely felt. Instead of the former hatred, opposition, 


1S ae A PRE-CONVENTION. STUDY 


and persecution, these churches are winning the friendship and confidence 
of the people. The early missionaries in China, for example, faced by the 
disdain and the unbroken, haughty superiority assumed by the Chinese 
people, ventured to predict, with extreme boldness of faith, that at the 
end of a century there might be a thousand Christians. The end of the 
century has come and as an evidence of the change in the attitude of 
China’s people there are more than 1000 ordained ministers serving the 
Churches in that country. Funds for famine relief and other benevolent 
purposes are commonly entrusted to Christians for distribution by com- 
mittees composed almost entirely or wholly of non-Christians. A new cli- 
mate has been created as far as the religious atmosphere is concerned. 

Modern education, now being rapidly adopted by the people of Asia 
and Africa, was begun by the Christian Church. The campaigns for 
literacy in these countries are led by Christians. Such competent observers 
as Sir John Jordan, former British Minister in Peking, testify to the 
effective leadership of the Church in China in the anti-opium campaign. 
So in other reform movements, such as that against gambling, against 
footbinding, against sexual immorality, and others, it is the Christian 
Church, often in cooperation with other forces, that has furnished the 
dynamic power which has achieved real results. The awakening of a public 
conscience depends largely on the churches. The uplift of womanhood in 
these countries and the hope of the depressed classes owe almost everything 
to the initiative, example, and work of indigenous Churches. Even in na- 
tional politics the Christians are becoming increasingly powerful. A group 
of young Christian statesmen in China are dominating not only its rela- 
tions with foreign powers, but are acquiring rapidly growing power in home 
government affairs. The astonishing call to prayer issued by the former 
president, Yuan Shih-kai, is interpreted by many of those best capable of 
judging, to have been a politic proposal, calculated to win the support of 
the Christians, and therefore to have been a striking testimony to their 
influence in national affairs. In defending the rights of religious liberty 
Christians have always been prominent. Referring to China again, it was 
they—Protestants and Roman Catholics—who with the cooperation of 
Buddhists and Moslems successfully opposed the effort in 1916, to make 
Confucianism the state religion by constitutional enactment. 


The Development of an Indigenous Christianity 


The growth in numbers and power are such that we should not be sur- 
prised to find that these churches are growing also in self-consciousness. 
This is expressed sometimes in dissatisfaction with present circumstances 
and conditions, and a criticism of foreign missionaries.. But even that is 
an evidence of growth and a sign of vigorous life. It is shown not only 
in greater efforts to attain financial self support, but also in the 
desire increasingly expressed for independence of thought, and the purpose 
to govern themselves and develop in such ways as will permit them to retain 
what is true and good and beautiful in native customs and culture. 


Commission II on the Future of the Church recommended the following 


treeCORISTW ANA CHURCHES ING HOREIGN -LANDS® «19 





steps toward the practical application of the foregoing in its report to the 
National Christian Conference, held in Shanghai, China, in May, 1922. 


1. That the ultimate aim and the controlling purpose in the administra- 
tion and organization of churches and missions should be the development of 
such an indigenous church that the missions can gradually be subordinated 
and eventually disappear, securing to the Church the full responsibility 
for the direction of all its activities, including the use of funds and mis- 
sionary staff supported by Mission Boards. 

2. That all questions affecting in common the Mission or Missions 
and the Church be discussed by Chinese and foreigners meeting together. 

3. That it is desirable in certain fields for foreign missionaries to be re- 
lated to and serve under the direction of constituted ecclesiastical authori- 
ties and that they should have the same status as corresponding indigenous 
workers have. 


4, That in general it is desirable that decisions as to appointment, number, 
qualification, location and work of missionaries be made by bodies on which 
are representatives of the Church or which are themselves the properly 
constituted courts of the Church. 


5. That the practice now in vogue in many missions and churches of 
transferring administrative responsibility for evangelistic and primary school 
work from the missions to committees or organizations representing the 
churches composed exclusively or very largely of Chinese should be encour- 
aged and gradually extended as local leadership is developed and conditions 
permit, until it becomes the practice in every mission and church in China. 

6. That representatives of the churches should be associated in the man- 
agement of educational, medical and other types of Christian institutional 
work. 

Church Union 

More has been achieved in Asia and Latin America in reuniting the 
churches than in North America or Europe. These Christians, surrounded 
by vast non-Christian populations, feel their essential unity much more than 
we do, and because the existing divisions are almost wholly a product of 
western Christendom, they have an earnest desire to remove these divisions 
and to organize one church that will include all Christians. 


The first step has been to unite churches belonging to the same denomina- 
tional family. It is on these lines that the churches in Japan are now or- 
ganized. All the churches that have resulted in the first place from the 
missionary work of the Presbyterian and Reformed Churches are united 
in the “Church of Christ in Japan.” The Methodist Church in Japan is 
a union of the churches established by the Methodists of the United States, 
North and South, and of Canada as well. So too, the Anglican Church in- 
cludes those who trace their beginnings to the missionary work of that 
Church in England, the United States and Canada. The Baptist Church 
combines the churches that were begun by the Northern and Southern 
Churches in America. It is impossible in this brief statement to give 
even a mere list of such unions. The same policy has been adopted in 
Korea and China and to some extent in India. In China a noteworthy 





20 A PRE-CONVENTION STUDY 





addition to the list would be the union of Lutheran Churches, including 
Scandinavian mission churches as well as those planted by American 
missions. In Latin America, notably in Brazil and Mexico, similar develop- 
ments have taken place. 

The next step has been to unite churches of closely allied systems of 
government. One outstanding example is that of the “South India United 
Church,’ which is composed of what were Presbyterian and Congrega- 
tional churches, founded by the United Free Church of Scotland, the Re- 
formed Church in America, the London Missionary Society, and the 
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. This step is 
also taking place in China, where negotiations are in progress for a 
nation-wide union of all Presbyterian and Congregational churches, which 
eventually may include some of the Baptist churches also. In South 
Fukien, the church work of the American Reformed Church and the 
English Presbyterian Church has from the beginning been a unity, and 
within recent years the Congregational Union resulting from the work 
of the London Missionary Society has united with it, so that with the 
exception of a few Seventh Day Adventist Churches, there is now only 
one Protestant Church in all that region of China. So too in the southern 
part of Kwantung, centering in Canton, there has been formed a union of 
all the churches that have resulted from the missionary work of Presby- 
terian, Congregational and United Brethren Missions from the United 
States, Canada, England, and New Zealand. 

The third step is more difficult. This will be the union of churches that 
differ not only in forms of government but also in their doctrines relating 
to the sacraments and the Christian ministry. In this again, the churches 
in South India are the pioneers. Since 1920, a Joint Committee repre- 
senting the Anglican Church and the South India United Church have 
continued their negotiations for a larger union which would have a “con- 
stitutional episcopate,” with a ministry that would have an equality of 
status in all sections entering the Union. It is significant that relations with 
the Churches in the West form a serious difficulty in consummating these 
plans. Also in Kenya Colony in East Africa the Kikuyu Alliance of Mis- 
sionary Societies, which includes the missionaries of the Church of Scot- 
land (Presbyterian), the Church Missionary Society (Anglican), the 
Africa Inland Mission (undenominational), and others, is earnestly press- 
ing forward in the endeavor to establish only one united church in that 
territory. 

In addition to these movements resulting in the organization of churches, 
the churches and missions in Japan, China and India have succeeded in or- 
ganizing effective federations or National Christian Councils, composed of 
representatives of all the churches and missions in each of these countries, 
exclusive of the Roman and Greek Catholic churches. In these councils, 
the Christian forces are realizing their essential unity and are consulting 
together regarding the common task before them of Christianizing the 
whole life of their people 

The long list of union institutions, schools, colleges, universities, and 
hospitals is also impressive evidence of the spirit of cooperation and unity 


MHESCHORISTIAN, CHURCHES IN FOREIGN LANDS 21 





that prevails so strongly in these mission fields. The report of the 1922 
Conference in Shanghai (page 616) gives a list of seventy union edu- 
cational institutions, besides a number of various other associations in which 
missions are united in the interests of more efficient work. There are 
at least six large union theological seminaries in China alone in which 
different denominations are officially cooperating, without counting a 
number of other seminaries and Bible schools in which several missions 
of the same church unite. Few if any such Union Theological Seminaries, 
union in fact as well as in name, exist in America or Europe. This sug- 
gests something of the strength of this desire for union that exists on the 
mission field. 
Problems and Questions 

Out of the success of missions in establishing and developing Churches 
in other lands there arise some of the most urgent questions and problems 
of missionary work today. 

In general terms, the all-inclusive problem is how to carry forward our 
missionary work in such ways that the Church in all lands may develop with 
increasing strength and rapidity as an indigenous organism. We may as- 
sume that a foreign organization cannot be the most effective handmaid of 
Christianity in any country. The Christian Church as an importation from 
without, as something imposed upon another people, as a block of cus- 
toms and observances quite out of harmony with the historic tradition of the 
country is an organization that must be changed or discarded. Referring 
to it, Dr. Cheng, the chairman of the National Christian Conference in 
Shanghai in 1922, said: “The foreign taste of Christianity is too strong 
for the Chinese people to like it.” It is an accepted principle of missionary 
work that the churches should be developed among the different peoples 
according to their genius and culture rather than presented ready-made by 
the western world. The practical application of this principle raises ques- 
tions that are not easily answered. These involve standards of morality, 
forms of worship, methods of government, and the relations of the mission- 
ary and the organized mission to the Church and its work. How may these 
Churches be free to determine their own plans and to build in such a way as 
to express their own life and yet receive the aid which the older, stronger 
western churches owe them, and still maintain real relation with a world- 
wide Church, being themselves also “built upon the foundation of the 
apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief corner stone.” 


Customs and Observances 


1. Since these oriental Christians have begun to think for themselves, 
some of the first questions they ask are those that refer to the customs 
and observances of the church. There is no reason for accepting tradi- 
tions and customs simply because they happen to have come from the West, 
or of rejecting them because of their oriental connection. The problem is to 
discover those which are consistent with the Christian faith and will best 
express its life. All that is objectionable and contrary to the teaching 
of Christ is to be rejected. With that as an accepted principle, the 
Chinese Church, for example, is reopening the question of whether the 


1h A PRE-CONVENTION STUDY 


observances in connection with ancestor worship can be so purified and 
adapted as to become a truly Christian form of commemoration of their 
departed parents. Again, while rejecting idolatry and superstition, Chris- 
tians are asking both in China and in India how they may observe in a 
Christian way some of the popular feast days. Marriage customs and cere- 
monies are another subject of great interest to them. Should ancient cus- 
toms be changed so that the parties most concerned, the bride and bride- 
groom, may choose each other instead of the parents arranging this for 
them? What forms of Christian ceremony will best express in a native way 
true ideas of marriage? In India the problem of caste is a persistent 
one. In the services of religious worship, how may native customs and 
ideas be observed and adapted to express Christian truths? In India, for 
example, a noteworthy development in recent years has been the adoption 
of certain forms of musical recitation in place of sermons or addresses on 
certain occasions and especially in connection with evangelistic meetings 
attended largely by non-Christians. 


The Church and Politics 


2. With the increased spirit of nationalism and the resultant political 
agitation and unrest of recent years, the place and responsible duty of the 
Church has become a question of immediate and great importance. What 
is the duty of a Christian patriot? What should be the relation of the 
Church to questions of national politics? The foreign missionary because 
he is an alien may be compelled to be a neutral in such discussions. But 
the Indian Christian is directly concerned with the question of India’s po- 
litical status, And the Chinese Church may possibly do much to establish 
order and to realize the hopes of the republic. The Japanese Christian may 
influence the character of Japan’s rule over Korea and Formosa. The 
African is face to face with great questions of race relations. Should the 
churches in these countries as churches become involved in these political 
and racial movements? Or will they accomplish their largest service by de- 
voting all their efforts to the development in men and women of a spirit 
of self-sacrifice and service, assisting them where possible in acquiring 
the training or education that will be useful, especially doing all within 
their power to strengthen their personal characters? 


Religions 

3. There is no suggestion that the standards of Christian teachings should 
be lowered, or the supreme claims of Jesus Christ modified, but what is 
the true position of Christianity with reference to Hinduism, Buddhism, 
Confucianism, Shintoism, or other religions? Are there ideas and doctrines 
in these religions that are true and good and beautiful which are consis- 
tent with and ought to be incorporated in the body of Christian teaching? 

What should be the relation of churches that trace their origin to the 
Reformation in Europe to the Roman and Greek Catholic churches ? 

Within the western denominations, doctrinal differences have emerged, 
resulting in serious controversy. Are these of any important interest 
to the Churches in these other countries? Should they discuss these same 


Wa eeCHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN” FOREIGN LANDS. 23 


questions, or be left free to develop their own doctrinal statements? 
Should they be instructed in modern textual criticism of the Bible? What 
training should be given to their ministers, evangelists and bible women? 


Further Problems of Church Union 


4. As outlined in preceding pages considerable progress has been made 
in uniting the churches, avoiding the weakening sectarianism of the churches 
in the West. But much more remains to be done, and the problem is a 
most insistent one, calling for the highest degree of charity and Christian 
statesmanship. The words of the Commission on “The Church in the 
Mission Field” at the world Conference in Edinburgh may well be quoted: 
“While we lament our divisions, let us not be so untrue to Church His- 
tory as to represent them as perverse and wanton breaches of Christian 
unity. They have arisen in some cases rather from the external relations of 
the church than from any internal division. Where they are really internal 
and touch matters of doctrine, they have been created not by two hostile 
camps, one right and the other wrong, but by two bodies of men, each 
holding loyally to a truth, perhaps overemphasized, or taken out of its 
due place and proportion in the analogy of the faith, The remedy will 
not be found in condemning either party, not by ignoring both, but by the 
Western Church, now old in experience and ripe in wisdom, clearing her own 
mind as to what pure gold is left now that the fires of old controversies 
have cooled, and saying frankly to the younger communions in the mission 
field that it is only the gold, tried and purified, that we recommend to their 
acceptance. Then the young church will be free to act, and will be ready 
to realize her own truly Christian instinct in a wider unity in the mission 
field, without losing what is of permanent value in the rich historical ex- 
perience of the Church. If we prove tardy, we may find ourselves ere 
long compelled to follow in the footsteps of the younger church, which, 
free from our prepossessions, may see with a clearer vision, and act with a 
bolder purpose, than we are yet able to do.” 


The Ministry 


The securing, training, and maintenance of adequate and efficient leader- 
ship is probably the most serious problem facing the Churches in the 
mission field. Of central importance among the various classes of workers 
that are needed are the ministers—well-educated men, who can guide others 
in the midst of the present conflicting intellectual movements, and men 
preeminent in spiritual matters, interpreters of the inner meaning of Chris- 
tianity, men full of grace and of the Holy Spirit. So far as this concerns 
the foreign missionaries, this means that they will work and sincerely pray 
for such men as will be qualified to take direction of the Church’s work 
and with whom they will cooperate gladly, at least on terms of equality 
and probably as subordinates. Nothing less than this can satisfy the 
missionary aim of developing an indigenous church. Only as it obtains 
a strong native ministry will it lose its foreign characteristics. The peoples 
of each country must be dominant in the Church of their country, and the 
missionary must aim to train not merely good followers, but to find and 


24 A PRE-CONVENTION- SfUDyY. 


help to develop those finer spirits whom before long he himself will be glad 
to follow. There have been great missionaries in the past, great pioneers, 
who endured hardship, and who have labored gloriously in mastering langu- 
ages, in evangelistic service and in founding the Church. Many of these 
qualities will be needed in the missionaries of today and tomorrow, but 
there is coming a new call of great urgency for missionaries who can help 
in the development of men greater than themselves. 

Further it should be pointed out that such a ministry must be supported 
by the Church itself. It may be possible for missionary societies to con- 
tinue payment without exercising control, possibly by making financial 
grants-in-aid to Church Councils, instead of paying the salaries of indi- 
viduals, but the tendency even of such a system will be to dampen the self- 
respect and to retard the advance of the Church and its ministers. This 
suggests the importance of avoiding to overload the Church with foreign 
buildings and equipment that may make its financial burdens too heavy. 
It also stresses the urgency of renewed attention to the problem of the self- 
support of the Church. 


Relation of Mission and Church 


6. By mission is meant the organized group of missionaries from abroad, 
whether it be called a council, conference, district committee, or other name. 
The Church is the community of baptized Christians, organized in churches, 
presbyteries, diocesan councils, conferences, or in other ways. In the early 
stages of missionary work the mission has been the predominant partner 
in the cooperation of these two organizations. Through its growth in 
numbers and also as a result of the growing national spirit among the peo- 
ples of these lands, the churches have become increasingly conscious of their 
own responsibilities and desirous of governing themselves, and determining 
their own lines of development. Subordination to direction by foreigners 
is deeply resented. 

It can also be truly said that the missions are generally willing and often 
eager to make the necessary adjustments in the administration of their 
work so as to transfer authority to the churches. The problem consists 
in doing this in the wisest way, and at the right time. The real issue is 
sometimes only one of organization, but always one of the true relation 
between native and foreign Christian workers. What is at stake is nothing 
less than the best way of presenting Christ to the peoples of these lands. 
The machinery of the mission and the organization of the Church are but 
means to this great end. Moreover, the mission is essentially transitory, 
existing for the purpose of aiding in the formation of the Church, and losing 
itself in the Church’s life. 

Here again it is impossible in this brief statement to show what has been 
achieved in recent years in adjusting these relationships. The student must 
be referred to the rapidly growing literature on this subject. The solu- 
tion of the problem is being sought in many different ways. The missions 
of the American Boards in Japan and North China and the Arcot Mission 
in India of the Reformed Church in America have practically transferred 
the entire control of all their work, educational and medical, as well as 


THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN FOREIGN LANDS 25 


evangelistic to the Church in which the missionary has only the place and 
power of an individual. The missions of the Scotch and American Presby- 
terian Churches in practically all their fields are transferring “a gradually 
increasing amount” of authority to the presbyteries. So also the Church 
Missionary Society is transferring the control of its work in India from 
the Society and its representatives to the diocesan organization. A number 
of missions, Presbyterian, Baptist, Episcopal, Congregational, in Japan, 
China, India, South America and Africa, besides transferring most of the 
evangelistic work entirely to the control of the Church, are creating joint 
committees intermediate between the Church and Mission, to which much of 
the remaining work in educational and other institutions is being given for 
administration. The Board of the Methodist Church in Canada began in 
1923 to make a lump sum grant for all the evangelistic work carried on in 
its West China field directly to the China Conference, so that the Chinese 
Church will have control not only of its workers but also of the administra- 
tion of these funds. In the Methodist Episcopal Church, the missionaries 
from the first are on a parity with the native clergy in the Church Con- 
ference, which, with the Bishop, controls all the work of the Church and 
Mission, only the funds from America and the maintenance of the mis- 
sionaries being retained in the control of a “finance committee.” This com- 
mittee may be appointed either by the Conference or by the missionaries, 
the number of nationals on the Committee also varying in different fields. 

A special question arises in Episcopal Churches from the increasing de- 
mand that the Bishop should “not be of the blonde variety.” It should 
therefore be noted that in both the Anglican and Methodist Churches in 
Japan, Japanese Bishops have been consecrated; in India an Indian Bishop 
is in full charge of a diocese in the Anglican Church; and in China in 
the same church there is an assistant Chinese Bishop. 

Another question arises in connection with the transfer of the work of 
women missionaries, such as their schools for girls. In the mission, men 
and women have either equal rights, or there is a separate organization 
of the women for the direction of their work. Is it right to ask that their 
work should now be transferred to the Church unless they shall have an 
equal voice there in its control? 


New Missionaries Needed 


7. What effect has the rapidly changing relation of the Church and the 
Mission upon the number and character of new missionaries that are 
needed ? 

It will be a serious mistake to think that having developed the spirit 
and set up the organization as the nucleus of the Church in Asia, Africa, 
and other lands, the missionaries from the Western churches should gradu- 
ally withdraw. To place upon the meagre membership of the Chinese 
Church, for example, the total responsibility of carrying the Gospel to 
400,000,000 of people and of Christianizing the life of the nation while the 
Western Church looks on to see how they do it, is to lay too heavy a 
burden on a comparatively small number of Christians and to encourage 
the shirking of duty by the larger and older churches. The missionaries of 


26 A PRE-CONVENTION STUDY 


today and of the future must discover how to identify themselves with the 
Christian people of the lands to which they go in their work, their organi- 
zation, their spiritual enterprise, so as to share with them in the great con- 
quests that must be achieved. A basis in human relationships must be found 
for a fellowship in the things of the spirit which can bring to a land like 
that of China the forces of the fresh faith of the Chinese people themselves 
with those which have also the mighty impulses of generations of hope, 
faith and love. For the current activities and organization of the foreign 
missions on the one hand, and instead of the so-called national church 
which tends to become provincial, there must be substituted a Divinely con- 
trolled partnership between our western faith and energy and the newer 
elements of strength that are found in national and racial life, without 
prejudice to either party. 

Recognizing more and more the independence of the native churches, the 
foreign missionaries who will be most acceptable to them must have other 
qualifications in addition to those that characterized earlier missionaries when 
these churches were not yet in existence. It will be assumed that missionary 
boards in America and Europe will continue to require of their candidates 
that they shall be men and women of physical strength, with adequate in- 
tellectual training, and possessing good Christian characters. Besides all 
these essential qualifications, the missionaries whom the native churches 
would like to welcome most must be those whose ambition it will not be 
to become leaders or directors or superintendents, but who will be eager 
to become friends, and who will seek to manifest genuine love in true 
fellowship, whatever their position or status may be or become. Their 
purpose will be to endeavor to work in fullest loyalty with or under the 
native pastors and other officials in the Church or its institutions. The most 
influential leaders will not always be in the foremost of a movement. The 
most fruitful service will often be inconspicuous. Moreover, these mis- 
sionaries will always exhibit a spirit of toleration. Without sacrificing 
fundamental principles, they will welcome and accept whatever is true and 
good wherever found. They will come not to destroy, but to fulfill; not 
to transplant a system of their own and to abolish whatever is not included 
in it, but to cultivate nurture and encourage the church in its apprehension 
of truth. With all this, they will also have deep convictions of the essential 
value of the gospel message in maintaining which they will count no suffer- 
ing or opposition or sacrifice too hard to bear. They will be men and 
women with a true passion, constrained by the love of Christ, full of the 
Holy Spirit and of power. 


The magnitude of the task involved in the Christianizing of what we 
still call the non-Christian world demands a much larger number of mis- 
sionaries for an indefinite time to come, but the rightful recognition of the 
Churches in these lands also requires that the new missionaries must be 
men and women of peculiarly high qualifications, who may be expert in 
many ways, but whose supreme qualification will be that they are ready to 
lose themselves in the larger service with men and women of other races and 
find themselves in the Kingdom of Christ, 


Spiritual Opportunities in Specialized 
Types of Life Service Abroad 


PauL WILBERFORCE Harrison, M.D. 
Missionary to Arabia. 


The great work of Missions is a spiritual enterprise. Its purpose is to 
carry Christ to this non-Christian world. At first practically all missionaries 
were engaged in direct evangelistic work, but times have changed until now 
we find the Missionary Boards sending out a great variety of Christian 
workers, all of whom may have an evangelistic purpose, but many of whom 
expect and are specially trained to express this purpose in more indirect and 
practical ways. The Student Volunteer Movement Bulletin which lists the 
different calls that come from the Mission Boards each year, contains re- 
quests for business managers and secretaries, for printers and agriculturists, 
for engineers and dentists. One might conclude that missionary activity 
has changed its character very radically since the days when ordained 
preachers of the Gospel constituted the great bulk of the missionary force. 


False and True Interpretations of Variety 


This increased variety of missionary activities has been unfortunately 
the cause of grave misgivings in certain quarters. Some have feared that 
the original evangelistic aim of missionary service is being obscured and 
a program of social service substituted for it. Some fear that the in- 
creasing complexity of missionary work reflects a steadily increasing 
effort to transmit to the non-Christian lands not the teachings, example and 
power of Christ alone, but also our customs, our political institutions, our 
manner of thought and methods of education; in a word our whole very 
unchristian civilization. This fear has been felt very keenly by many of 
the nationals of relatively non-Christian countries. In certain parts of 
India between the indigenous Christian church and the growing Nationalist 
Movement there is a great gulf. Neither one sympathizes with or under- 
stands the other. Yet the two movements have very large contributions 
to make each to the other, and this lack of confidence on both 
sides is nothing short of a calamity. The whole unfortunate situation is 
due largely to the feeling that when an Indian becomes a Christian he 
loses all his patriotism, even his. nationality, and is to be classed henceforth 
as a sort of half-caste European. The beginnings at least of a similar 
feeling are to be detected in China. 


Now such views and such fears are entirely without foundation. The 
central motives and objectives of Missionary service have not changed, al- 
though we may not express them in the same terms as were used ten years 
ago. The Missionary enterprise is still a spiritual enterprise and its objec- 
tive a spiritual objective. Even today, the majority of missionaries go out as 
full time evangelistic workers to carry Christ’s message by life and word to the 
men and women of non-Christian countries, 


28 A PRE-CONVENTION STUDY 


A Common Purpose 


Manifestly it is the first and greatest purpose of all missionaries whether 
full-time evangelistic workers or not, to carry Christ to the non-Christian 
world. The man who goes out to be an agricultural missionary in South 
America does not hope merely to succeed in growing more bushels of 
millet or corn per acre than grew in that part of South America before. 
The industrial missionary in India does not hope merely to teach a new 
and improved method of weaving cloth. They hope to be of real assistance 
in taking Christ to those countries, and permanently establishing His 
church there. The evangelistic aim of modern missions is not monopolized 
by the so-called evangelistic missionary. To no less a degree this is the aim 
of every one of his colleagues. Any missionary, whatever his specialty, whose 
efforts do not help materially to bring Christ to men and men to Christ 
fails, and fails miserably. 


We have then at present a missionary force, not all of whom devote their 
entire time to the preaching of the Gospel. Many other types of mis- 
sionaries are cooperating with the evangelistic staff, under the impression 
that their varied activities contribute substantially to the same end. How 
large a contribution, as a matter of fact, do these specialized workers make 
to the Christian enterprise? Are the spiritual opportunities of their work 
such as make it a worth while life investment? (Can a doctor for instance 
really make a larger contribution to his fellow men in Arabia than he could 
do were he to remain in America? Is a teacher in China really accom- 
plishing more far-reaching spiritual work on the average than one in 
Nebraska? 


Assistants to Missionaries 


Missionaries with technical training whose chief contributions are of the 
more practical sort may be divided into four classes. The first class is 
composed of those who are on the field as assistants to other missionaries. 
A number of the larger missions have treasurers, who are at the same time 
business managers and purchasing agents. These men may not learn the 
language of the country, at least not as thoroughly as the other missionaries. 
Their work differs little if at all from similar business activities in America. 
There are a smaller number of stenographers and private secretaries for 
individual missionaries whose administrative responsibilities are especially 
heavy. In China, India, Japan, Egypt, and doubtless other countries, schools 
for missionaries’ children have been established where educational facilities 
as high as middle or high school grade are provided. Such schools must 
have teachers who are not required to learn the language but who must 
have the highest qualifications for their special tasks, and who may come 
out for a limited term of years, if they feel unable to give their whole life 
to the work. 


The opportunities before such missionaries are very great. A business 
manager may release two or three first class missionaries for their proper 
work, and handle the business affairs of the mission far better than the 
three missionaries could possibly handle it due to lack of technical training. 





DV PES*ORSLIFPEVSERVICE ABROAD 743) 





A good secretary and stenographer will double the outreach and efficiency 
of some outstanding native or foreign church leader. Each teacher of 
missionaries’ children may make possible the continued service of a dozen 
missionary families. Furthermore the contribution that such missionaries 
can make to the cooperative missionary enterprise is limited only by their 
time and strength for the work. There are articles to write for home maga- 
zines, and no one is quite so well qualified to select the things of interest 
and inspiration for the home constituency as these technical short term 
assistants. There are prayer bands to develop and cultivate. There is the 
ministry to the local European community, always a desperately needy field 
and usually a sadly neglected one. There are the never absent tourists 
whose entertainment seems a most energy-consuming and unpromising ac- 
tivity but nevertheless one capable of being transformed into a very valuable 
spiritual asset. 

But the above, singly and all together, does not touch on the great out- 
standing opportunity of this type of missionary work. Such missionaries 
come into comparatively little direct contact with the exceedingly depressing 
atmosphere in which all other regular missionaries must labor constantly. 
No one has quite the opportunity they have of seeing that the spiritual 
gifts sent out from America do not deteriorate under the strain. They can 
maintain a healthy and sane social and religious life among the missionaries 
themselves, taking care spiritually of the new arrivals, as they meet the 
first shock of new and often discouraging conditions, which are to con- 
stitute their only atmosphere for years to come. All these and many other 
opportunities of the same sort are waiting for any missionary who has eyes 
to see and the heart to respond. These are ministering missionaries, and 
to no small extent the tone of the whole missionary body, and the spiritual 
quality of its service depend upon them. 


The Educator’s Service 

The second class of non-evangelistic missionaries and by far the largest 
consists of teachers. It is with no idea that education is a function 
solely of the church that educational missionaries are sent out to non- 
Christian countries and still less with any desire to fasten an alien culture 
upon these people among whom we serve. Education is primarily the 
business of the state. Even though we believe that there is a real need 
and place for distinctly Christian education in every country, which of 
course we all do, still we must admit that the permanent program of Christian 
education however extensive is something for the indigenous church 
eventually to develop and support. 

Missionary education is undertaken with the same motives as lead to 
every other humanitarian effort connected with the Church of Christ 
anywhere. At present there is a desperate lack of common knowledge on 
the part of the people of Arabia, and the Christian Church does its best 
to meet that need. In its very’nature however, the effort must be a tem- 
porary one. It is the duty of the Christian Church, just as it is the duty 
of every individual Christian who makes up that church to meet every sort 
of human need and relieve every sort of human distress to the utmost 





30 A PRE-CONVENTION STUDY 


extent of her ability. Throughout the non-Christian world there is a 
crying need for education. As a result of ignorance the entire community 
suffers from hunger, from disease, from misgovernment, and from nearly 
every ill that humanity knows. The effort to meet this need is perhaps the 
largest humanitarian effort at present carried on by the church. 

The demands made upon educational missionaries are severe, and the 
opportunities for the finest sort of spiritual work unsurpassed. Common 
honesty demands that we take to our non-Christian friends no mediocre 
educational service. We want to take them a gift that Christ Himself can 
approve of, which means that we must take them the very best. No slip- 
shod training and lazy mediocre ambitions will serve the educational mis- 
sionary. Mission Boards are refusing to consider applicants for foreign 
educational service who are not college graduates, and who have not had 
in addition special educational training and experience. 


Mission schools do their largest work by serving as examples for 
similar educational efforts on the part of the people themselves. It is 
of the utmost importance, therefore, that the example afforded be a good 
one. 


Every sort of education is carried on in the Mission field. There are 
kindergartens and primary schools, secondary schools, industrial schools, 
agricultural schools, business schools, normal schools, Bible schools, Theo- 
logical Seminaries, colleges and universities. The evangelistic worker enjoys 
no greater opportunity to bring Christ into contact with the hearts of men 
and women, boys and girls, than his educational colleague. It is not 
by means of curriculum Bible classes or of official Chapel exercises that the 
educational missionary accomplishes his greatest work. The value of 
such courses and such exercises is trifling compared to the personal influence 
and effort of the missionary. If he is the teacher that he should be there 
is not one of his scholars but looks up to him as an example and guide, not 
one to whom he cannot exhibit Christ in all the beauty of his own vision 
and understanding of Him. The evangelistic worker meets more men by 
far, but the educational missionary meets his smaller number more inti- 
mately, and his work is among the younger people, before age has petrified 
both their minds and their hearts. 


Opportunities Through Medical Service 


The third class of non-evangelistic workers who are largely used as 
technical assistants in the Christian enterprise consists of doctors and 
nurses. All that has been said in regard to the temporary nature of mis- 
sionary education is to be said regarding medical missionary work. Every 
medical missionary is working and praying for the day when such service 
will no longer be needed, but for the present he ministers to needs as des- 
perate as any that this suffering old world knows. The need varies in 
different countries. In Japan there is a native medical profession which is 
on a par with our own. In Arabia not even the beginnings of such a pro- 
fession are to be found. 





RPE SPOPALIETeSEiRVICE ARBROAD OL 


In any primitive country the medical missionary’s work represents a des- 
perate effort to meet only a minute fraction of the appalling physical need 
with which he is surrounded. In Arabia perhaps two million people must 
come for their only possible surgical treatment to a little hospital of thirty- 
five beds located in Bahrein. In entering new and hostile territory it is 
usually the medical missionary who begins the work, and only after acquain- 
tance with him has disarmed suspicion and allayed prejudice, is it possible 
for others to enter and join him. Such a missionary has an enormous 
amount of medical work to do. His equipment is usually meager, his 
opportunity to compare his work with that of others confined to furloughs 
once in six or seven years. First class work under such circumstances 
depends upon a capacity for hard work which must be almost limitless. 
Women physicians are an important part of such a staff. In many coun- 
tries sick women cannot be attended by men no matter how great the need. 
Nurses too are indispensable, for without them not half the work can be 
done which is possible when their aid is available. 

A hospital staffed with men and women physicians, with at least one 
missionary nurse in charge of the patients and of the hospital administra- 
tion, has an opportunity for spiritual work that angels might envy. There 
is no community so fanatically hostile to Christ and His messengers that 
it cannot be melted by the Christ-like ministrations of medical missionaries. 
Practically not an individual can be found even in so fanatical a country as 
Inland Arabia, who cannot be transformed into a warm personal friend. 
The example of the doctors and nurses is the most powerful apologetic 
that Christianity possesses in such backward and hostile places. The doctor 
tries very hard to reach a certain number of his patients in a definite way 
for Christ, but if he is the earnest Christian that he should be, his spiritual 
influence extends far beyond the small number with whom he has talked 
personally. His skill, kindness and democracy of spirit soon give Christ 
and His message a new place in men’s hearts for hundreds of miles in 
every direction. Fifteen years ago there was an outstanding medical mis- 
sionary working in a mission hospital in Busrah, and the skill and Chris- 
tian spirit shown in that hospital were a reinforcement to hard pressed 
missionaries all over Arabia. 

The doctor does not always work in primitive communities. Often he 
is located in the heart of advanced communities which are struggling upward 
toward a real civilization. The missionary hospital then becomes or should 
become a model which will be followed by many others. The earnest and 
sincere help of the medical missionary is behind every effort to prevent 
disease. Particularly is he interested in promoting public health education, 
in securing better sanitation, in developing medical education, and in assist- 
ing to a recognized place in the community every graduate from the indi- 
genous medical schools that eventually come into being. 


Not every medical missionary measures up to his spiritual opportunities. 
The great volume of professional work makes it very hard to spend the 
time that may be desired in personal work with patients. That is a small 
misfortune compared with allowing the missionary’s own prayer life and 
earnest devotional spirit to become so atrophied that he loses the power of 


32 A PRE-CONVENTION STUDY 


reflecting Christ. The medical missionary’s greatest function, his greatest 
spiritual opportunity is to illustrate Christ, to serve as His likeness in com- 
munities to whom no other presentation is possible. 

It goes without saying that for such a post a man needs the best sort of 
professional training. He has to carry the burdens of a practice that in- 
cludes nearly all the specialties at once. He needs to be a man of prayer 
and of devotional Bible study, for his first and last duty is to reflect Christ 
in all the strains and emergencies of an exceedingly taxing post. He must 
have a real democracy of spirit, for he above all missionaries perhaps must 
lead men and not try to drive them. He must know how to work long and 
hard and steadily in the face of all manner of difficulties and discourage- 
ments. The contribution that such a man can make to the spiritual needs 
of his companions and friends in China or India or Africa is limited by 
nothing except the size of his own soul. 


Opportunities in Industrial Work 


A fourth class of indirect evangelistic missionary work is the industrial 
and agricultural. This is not as extensive a branch of missionary activity 
as the others, and probably never will be. In many places however, it 
meets an extreme need. The industrial or agricultural missionary does a 
work that is both educational and social as well. Probably no greater curse 
exists in non-Christian countries than the curse of poverty, and in many 
countries great improvement in the people’s condition is possible under wise 
guidance. Sam Higginbottom for example is working to increase the 
economic base of life in India. Better seeds have been introduced, and 
better ways of cultivating the soil. Better breeds of farm animals have 
been developed. Dr. Grenfell has revolutionized the conditions of life in 
Labrador by introducing cooperative marketing and buying, in connection 
with his medical and evangelistic work. Teaching seri-culture, building 
roads, improving cotton seeds, introducing new methods in industry, teach- 
ing trades, acting as public health officials in the community, doing anything 
and everything to raise the economic, social and physical welfare of the 
people are tremendously worth-while occupations, hastening the coming 
of the Kingdom of God among men and proving very effective means to 
evangelism. 


It is from such technically trained missionaries above every one else that 
the new Christian learns that labor is no disgrace, but on the contrary 
more creditable than a life of ease. The possibility of conducting a 
business so that it ministers to the finest Christian life of its owner, rather 
than making it a means of defrauding every innocent victim who can be 
fleeced, is something that the Near East is learning today from Christian 
business men, both within the missionary ranks and without. 


Partners in a Common Task 


We will have a better understanding of the opportunities for spiritual 
good offered by all types of missionary service if we realize that the work 
itself is not the most significant in a missionary’s life after all. An earnest 
Christian from America comes to be the warm friend of a man in India 


PMP ESOL ei Lia Sr ViGhe 4abkROALD 33 


or China or Arabia, and by means of that friendship he is able to show 
Christ to that man, to show Him so adequately by example and word 
and motive and attitude, that Christ captures his friend just as pre- 
viously He had captured him. The essential thing is not the type of mis- 
sionary service engaged in. The evangelist is able to present the outlines 
of the Christian faith to the largest number. The teacher is able to explain 
its details most carefully. The doctor, the industrialist or agriculturist are 
able to illustrate Christ’s teachings as can no one else, for it is they who 
live the sort of life that ordinary men must live, and it is all ranks of 
men that we want to win for Christ. All types of missionary work are 
necessary in carrying Christ and His Gospel to the world, and all mis- 
sionaries have opportunities for spiritual work which are limited by 
nothing except the depth and genuineness of their own spiritual experiences. 


The Student Volunteer Movement for 
Foreign Missions 


A Statement of Its Origin, Purpose, and Function 


A well known Christian leader said recently that the foreign missionary 
enterprise might be called the most characteristic expression of Christian- 
ity, because it implies the universality of Christ in response to universal 
human need. Ever since the days of Paul there have been individuals 
who have had such a conception of Christianity, and they have been en- 
dowed with sufficient imagination to project themselves into the regions 
beyond, and to understand, to some extent at least, the needs of those who 
have no conception of God as He is manifested in Jesus Christ. 


Corporate Expression 


The Student Volunteer Movement is a corporate expression of con- 
sciousness, on the part of Christian students, of the missionary impli- 
cations of Christianity. In regard to its work and function four points 
are worthy of emphasis. First, it is limited in its field. It exists for the 
specific purpose of furthering one aspect of the life of the church, namely, 
its work in those parts of the world where there is little or no heritage of 
Christian thought and life, where the followers of Christ are the fewest, or 
where there are as yet no Christians in the community. Second, those who 
become Student Volunteers go out under the regular missionary organi- 
zations of the church. The movement is in no sense a missionary board; 
it does not usurp or encroach upon the functions of any other missionary 
organization, and has received the endorsement of every leading missionary 
board on the continent. Third, it is primarily a movement of students and 
largely controlled by students. Fourth, it is not a highly organized body, 
either nationally or locally, but seeks to be a fellowship rather than an 
organization. 


Origin 
In the academic year 1883-4 there was formed at Princeton a group of 
students who had decided upon their life work, and who adopted as their 
declaration the words “We are willing and desirous, God permitting, to 
become foreign missionaries.” They met regularly to study conditions in 


non-Christian countries, and to pray for other students who should vol- 
unteer to enter upon missionary service. 


When D. L. Moody called together the first student conference at Mt 
Hermon, Massachusetts in 1886, Robert P. Wilder and several others went 
from Princeton hoping that this idea which had been so vital a force in 
the lives of some of the Princeton men might spread to other colleges and 
so become a real part of student life and thought. They were joined by 
others, and daily this group met to pray until a missionary awakening of 
great significance arose. Before the end of that conference there were a 
hundred men from Canada and the United States who had signified their 





THE STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT 35 


willingness and desire to become foreign missionaries, God permitting. 
Messrs. Wilder, Mott, Riley, and Taylor were to travel among the colleges 
the ensuing year in the interests of this new movement. The latter three 
felt it impossible to do so and Mr. Wilder persuaded John Forman, one of 
the others in the group at Princeton, to travel with him. Their visits 
through Canada and the United States resulted in a large number of new 
members of the movement. 


Organization 


Late in 1888 the first Executive Committee was appointed, consisting of 
John R. Mott, representing the Student Y.M.C.A., Miss Nettie Dunn, the 
Student Y.W.C.A., and Robert P. Wilder, the Inter-Seminary Missionary 
Alliance of the United States and Intercollegiate Missionary Alliance of 
Canada. An organization was effected, taking the name of the Student 
Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, which is incorporated under 
the laws of the State of New York. 


The Watchword 


In 1891 this young Movement held its first conference, the forerunner of 
the seven other Quadrennial Conventions which have been held during 
succeeding college generations. At that time the Movement adopted as its 
watchword, “The Evangelization of the World in this Generation,” 
though the phrase had been used unofficially from the beginning of the 
movement by its leaders. This phrase was meant, not as a prophetic utter- 
ance, but as a challenge to Christian students to bring an adequate presenta- 
tion of Christ to all living men within their generation. It implies making 
Christ available to all men, through education and other processes, in such 
a way that men will choose to accept and serve Him; it further implies 
providing opportunities for continued advancement in Christian faith and 
life. 

Purpose 


The term “recruiting agency,” often applied to the Movement, is likely to 
give the impression that the sole aim of the organization is to find mission- 
ary candidates. Primarily it challenges students to seek to discover the will 
of God for their lives wherever that may lead them. It endeavors to set 
forth the enterprise of foreign missions as the inevitable expression of 
vital Christianity, in which all followers of Christ have a share. It seeks 
to relate missions to other world movements as a significant force in real- 
izing true world brotherhood. The purpose of the Movement, as stated in 
the articles of incorporation, reads as follows: ~ 


1. To awaken and maintain among all Christian students of the United 
States and Canada intelligent and active interest in foreign missions. 


2. To enroll a sufficient number of properly qualified student volunteers 
to meet the successive demands of the various missionary boards of North 
America. 

3. To help all such intending missionaries to prepare for their life-work 
and to enlist their cooperation in developing the missionary life of home 
churches. 


36 A PRE-CONVENTION STUDY 


4. To lay an equal burden of responsibility on all students who are to 
remain as ministers and lay workers at home, that they may actively pro- 
mote the missionary enterprise by their intelligent advocacy, by their gifts 
and by their prayers. 

Membership 


The declaration card of the Movement reads as follows: “It is my pur- 
pose, if God permit, to become a foreign missionary.” This implies active 
movement toward a goal. It is interpreted as meaning that the individual 
who signs the card has committed his life to God for service; that he has 
thoughtfully considered the world and its problems, with a view to finding 
the place where he can best serve; and that, as far as he can see, the will 
of God is that he shall eventually enter missionary service abroad. He has 
passed the stage of mere willingness—he has taken this as a purpose and 
his preparation will be directed toward that end. The declaration, however, 
is in no sense a pledge, which would imply that under no circumstances 
could one’s direction of life be changéd; on the contrary, it recognizes and 
allows for the future guidance of God. 

The signed declaration card is an application for membership in the 
Movement. Conditions of membership are as follows: 


1. The applicant must be a member of some Protestant evangelical 
church. 


2. He must be or must have been a student in some college, missionary 
or Bible training school, or professional or technical school of higher 
learning. 

3. He must have furnished to the headquarters the information asked 
for on the report form sent to him after his declaration has been received. 
This report should give evidence that he has a definite missionary purpose. 


The Local Group 


The unit of membership in the Student Volunteer Movement is the 
individual Volunteer, who has signed the declaration card and has been 
accepted as a member of the Movement. Whenever there are two or 
more such individuals on a campus they usually come together as a local 
group or band. Ideally this group has as little organization as is possible 
and should not be recognized as a campus activity. It is in a sense a 
vocational group whose aim is to promote among its members fellowship, 
prayer, and mutual strengthening of purpose. As to methods it is abso- 
lutely autonomous. Ideally Volunteers work as individuals in the local 
Christian organization on the campus and promote missionary education 
and gifts through such an organization rather than through their activities 
as a group. 

The Union 


Just as a local group is formed by all the members of the Movement 
in a given institution, so all undergraduate and out of college Volunteers 
in a given geographical area (usually a state) are eligible to membership in 
a Union. Each Union is autonomous, drawing up its own constitution and 
planning its own activities, one of which is usually an annual conference. 








THE STUDENT VOLUNTEER“ MOVEMENT 37 








In general the purpose of a Union is to help Volunteers revisualize and re- 
vitalize their purpose; to stimulate among Volunteers intercessory prayer ; 
to promote better understanding of the foreign mission agencies under which 
Volunteers are to serve; to clarify among Volunteers and non-Volunteers 
the function and purpose of the Student Volunteer Movement, and to 
share the purpose of Volunteers with other students, through conferences, 
discussions, news letters and other means. 


The Council 


The Student Volunteer Movement Council, held first in the spring of 
1920, is made up of two representatives, a man and a woman, elected each 
year by each Union. The Council elects its own officers and sets up its 
own program, keeping in mind its function, which is to review the work 
of the Movement, to discuss its problems and make recommendations to the 
Executive Committee and Staff, and to nominate student members to the 
Executive Committee. Council members continue to function throughout 
the ensuing year in studying the problems of the Movement, in interpreting 
the Movement within their respective areas, and in making recommenda- 
tions as to its policies and program of work. 


Executive Committee 


The Committee consists of thirty members, representing the Student 
Departments of the Young Men’s Christian Association and Young Wo- 
men’s Christian Association, the Canadian Student Christian Movement, 
the Mission Boards, members at large, and fifteen Student Volunteers 
who are still students. Each year the Council nominates seven or eight 
students respectively to serve for two years, these nominations always being 
ratified by the Executive Committee. The Committee meets at least four 
times a year, and a standing committee meeting once each month acts ad 
interim. 


The Staff 


The General Secretary is the general executive of the Movement. He is 
responsible to the Executive Committee for the administrative side of the 
work including all that is done by headquarters and traveling secretaries, 
who ate responsible to him as their director. 

It is the chief work of the two Educational Secretaries to carry out the 
first part of the Movement’s purpose by promoting among college students 
an intelligent understanding (1) of the world’s moral and religious needs, 
(2) of the relation of the Christian faith thereto and (3) of the nature 
and strength of organized Christianity the world over. Special responsi- 
bility rests upon the educational secretaries for encouraging more adequate 
preparation of Student Volunteers and for interpreting to others more 
faithfully through these volunteers the present needs and developments of 
indigenous Christianity abroad. In promoting missionary education of a 
general kind the educational secretaries cooperate with other student move- 
ments. Recently a Committee on Christian World Education was formed 
by the Student Christian Associations for the purpose of studying the whole 
question of missionary education and of securing a united approach to 


38 A PRE-CONVENTION STUDY 





college students in matters of preparation, promotion and use of educational 
material. The Educational Secretaries are also editors of the Student Volun- 
teer Movement BULLETIN which is published monthly during the college year. 


The two Candidate Secretaries relate the new Volunteers to the Candi- 
date Secretaries of their mission boards. They continue to correspond with 
Volunteers on personal matters and problems in the successive steps in 
their preparation, and are often instrumental in helping them, and other 
students as well, to find opportunities for fullest service either through their 
regular board affiliations or through some other mission agency. They also 
keep in touch with Volunteers prevented from going abroad whom they 
can sometimes help to find openings in this country. One important part 
of their work is to compile and send out each year the calls of all the 
Foreign Mission and Home Mission Boards in North America. 


There is an Executive Secretary who is in constant touch with the Vol- 
unteer groups in the colleges and with the officers of the various state and 
district unions and who has immediate direction of the work of the traveling 
secretaries. The Business Secretary’s chief responsibility is in connection 
with office administration and the finances of the Movement, in receiving 
subscriptions, meeting bills and raising additional funds. 


The Traveling Secretaries are members of the Movement on their way to 
missionary service abroad. The majority are students recently out of college, 
though the Staff usually includes one or more missionaries on furlough. 
They are asked to serve for one year so that the personnel is constantly 
changing. These secretaries may be said to be one of the most character- 
istic expressions of the Movement. They have been called “The Movement 
in action.” They travel among the colleges making vivid to their own college 
generation the missionary enterprise and its implications, through addresses, 
group meetings and personal conferences. In all their contacts they seek 
to carry out the four-fold purpose of the Movement as outlined above. 


Quadrennial Conventions 


With the exception of the period from 1914 to 1920, these conventions 
have been held once in every college generation since 1891. They have 
brought together students from all parts of the United States and Canada 
to consider the problems and the progress of Christ’s way of life, espe- 
cially in countries without a background of historical Christianity. These 
gatherings have not only stimulated many to consider missionary service 
as their own calling, but have also developed new spiritual insight and a 
Christian world consciousness in hundreds whose work has continued to be 
in this country. 


Finances 
The Movement has no endowment and is supported entirely by volun- 
tary contributions, which in this case means a large number of small sub- 
scriptions. It must look for support to those who appreciate the signifi- 
cance of missions and the unique contribution which the Movement is 
making to the whole enterprise. During the past three years students have 
contributed about one-third of the budget. 


THE STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT si) 





Present Relationships 


The relationships of the Student Volunteer Movement have been indi- 
cated above, but they may be summarized here. The Movement is a mem- 
ber of the Foreign Missions Conference of North America, of the Federa- 
tion of Woman’s Boards of Foreign Missions, and of the Federal Council 
of the Churches; it exists as a service organization for the Foreign Mission 
Boards, endeavoring first to discover missionary candidates and second, to 
show all other students their opportunities to share in this task of the Chris- 
tian church. 


The Movement serves especially the work of the Student Christian 
Associations in their missionary and world fellowship departments, where 
Volunteers are generally at work as individual members of the Associa- 
tion. It in no sense duplicates the Student Christian Association movements, 
which are general in character and which include many Student Volunteers 
as active members. 


Results 


Secretaries of the mission boards testify that the Movement has been 
helpful in making possible the raising of the standards of qualifications of 
intending missionaries. During the past twenty years in particular it has 
emphasized the fact that those who are to become missionaries should 
possess the highest qualifications. It invariably encourages students to 
take a regular and thorough college or university course and to press on to 
such graduate courses as may be required by the agencies under which they 
expect to go abroad. 

The most tangible evidence of the Movement’s work in relation to its 
objectives is found in the number of Volunteers who have reached the 
mission field. The sailed list, although incomplete for 1923 at this writing, 
includes approximately 10,200 Student Volunteers who have been accepted 
by the North America missionary societies, and sent to the foreign mis- 
sion field. Of these over 2100 have sailed since the Des Moines Con- 
vention, 1920. 

The fields to which these 10,200 volunteers have been appointed are 
as follows—China (over 3000), India and Ceylon (over 2000), Japan and 
Korea (over 1000), Africa (over 1000), South America (approximately 
1000), Mexico, Philippines, West Indies and Western Asia (between 250 
and 350 each), Central America, Persia, Siam and the Straits Settlements, 
Oceania, Europe and Arabia (under 250 each). 


















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